Deals Episodes

Goodwill's Big Makeover

If you've ever donated or shopped at Goodwill, you're going to want to take a second look. The store got a facelift! Find out how they help people in your community get ahead.

Out with the old and in with the new! It's an annual routine for mom of two growing girls Kim Cordova.

"The little one, she goes through clothes like every three or four months I have to buy a new set and then I just give them away or donate them," she says. "I have stuff in there with tags on."

Like most of us, Kim fills her plastic bag, hops in the car and drives it down to the local charity.

"I feel relief, like a weight lifted off me, I finally have space and now I finally have an excuse to go shopping," she
says.

But what happens after you drop that bag off at Goodwill?
"Usually I just go and I drop them off at the Goodwill,and I never think about it after that," says Kim. "I hope that they get good use, but I'm not sure what happens after that,"

For starters, we know the clothes are sorted and displayed on store racks for great deals! Fashion bloggers Pipa Williams and Jen McNeely showed us some of their finds. Complete outfits including jacket, shirt, skit and shoes for $40. The best deal of the day a Lilly Pullitzer sweater, vintage blouse, a sheer blouse, and Cynthia Rowley pants. Retail the outfit costs at least $300, but it's selling at the Goodwill for just $19.

Aside from the great deals, if it's been a while since you visited your local Goodwill, you'll notice some major changes.

"Goodwill has undergone a makeover, if you will, kind of a facelift, and so you will find us in great areas in town. You'll find that when you walk in, that it's like any other department store. We've got great lighting, we've got great placement just for everything when you walk in it feels like a great shopping experience and of course great deals," says Meredith Phillips of Goodwill.

But this isn't where that bag of unwanted clothes stops.

"When people donate, those items will go into our stores, and then the proceeds from the store go directly to our mission, so 95.5 cents of every dollar goes to our mission of helping people find jobs, find job training, and obviously change their life," she says. "This is a model that is replicated all over the United States. All Goodwills are local, because we want to be in the community, working with the community partnering with those other organizations to maximize their impact, but this is a model that is all over the United States."

"We meet them exactly where they are and we help train them and get them to a point where they are ready for employment," Meredith says.

"I was working a bartending job, and I knew that I wasn't gonna be able to teach my son that that wasn't what he wanted to do if I was settling for doing that," says Patricia "Tricia" Houston who enrolled in a local job connection program.

"It was absolutely free. I walked in the door and went for orientation. And then I went to a four day class and after the four day class they started sending me job interviews. You just went and learned how to interview," she said.

"It was more about learning about yourself how surrounding yourself with people that are never gonna get you anywhere can damage you. It was a wakeup call, make you look at your life and what you're doing wrong and why you're in the situation that you're in, so you can fix it," she said.

Justin Tedford went through the youth program.

"That program deals with juveniles, or really adults that have a juvenile record that are trying to better themselves. They may have made a mistake, but they're trying to look past that mistake and move forward," he says. "I think it's actually very awesome, I like the program, the people that work there help me. They've helped me get a job."

As for Patricia, she's now temping in Goodwill's corporate office!

"How can you walk into Goodwill and not be inspired by the people that you work with?" she said. "We have people with disabilities, aeople that manage to get up and come to work every single day when they are overcoming obstacles, which we can't even imagine. So I mean if they can do it, I can do it," says Patricia.

"I always thought that Goodwill was just a second hand store and just kind of passed right by it, but I won't ever again," Patricia says. "I will never throw anything away again because people don't realize that their donations are helping people like me get back up on their feet. I just want to thank them for holding their hand out, to show me that yes I can. When the whole world said "no you can't", the people at Goodwill said yes you can, and that's all I needed, I can take it from there."

"So that bag of clothes that you've been driving around with for a week, you have no idea how much of an impact that can make, and will make, and how far that donation will go if you stop by and donate at a Goodwill store," Meredith says.

Other segments featured on this episode of Deals:

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